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Post by Tilly Star on Aug 17, 2016 15:37:22 GMT 2
It's not until March 2017, but a close friend is getting married in Tagaylay in the Philippines. I'll be going but only for a week - which is a shame as it's so far but I can't really leave the midgets for longer.
Anyway, does anyone have any ideas of what I cannot miss? It's an hour from Manila so feel like I should go there...for what I do not know.
A day to the coast perhaps as well? Maybe one night? But where?
All knowledge and suggestions gratefully received x
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Post by Baz Faz on Aug 17, 2016 19:36:16 GMT 2
We went to the Phils about 12 years ago. Manila didn't seem a good place. We flew on to Palawan which even the Filipinos call the last frontier. They were constructing a road down the centre of the island. It was a dirt road for long stretches. But we also travelled up the west coast by outrigger boat, staying in 3 places. But this might not be your thing. Wonderful sandy beaches (except for the sand flies), friendly people, plenty of fresh fish, good quality rum at 50p a bottle.
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Post by Scrubb on Aug 18, 2016 5:06:18 GMT 2
If the place is Tagaytay, there's a volcano to climb and a picturesque lake right there. If you can fit it in, you could go see the rice terraces on the north of the island? They're supposed to be beautiful.
We spent only an evening in Manila on our way home - ended up finding a super high-end mall near our hotel and had dinner there and glanced at the rolex watches and expensive handbags in the shops.
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Post by Netsuke on Aug 18, 2016 17:14:14 GMT 2
"Quicky in the Phillipines"
You might want to change the subject title Scrubb, it has - certain connotations.
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Post by Tilly Star on Aug 18, 2016 17:53:00 GMT 2
Ha ha it was supposed to :-)
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Post by OnlyMark on Aug 18, 2016 18:13:08 GMT 2
I lived for two years in Manila and didn't find it to be a particularly attractive city. We lived 20km to the south and travelled in every day. We found that setting off at 6am just started to beat the traffic building up. Returning at 4pm was the same. But only just and we were frequently stuck for an hour or more in jams. I also found there was no great redeeming feature about many places around the capital, including, as then the beaches. We would more often get a flight out to one of the islands, Palawan included. Bear in mind this was 2003ish, so quite a few years ago. We did stay a couple of times at the Coral Beach Club about 60km to the west of Tagatay, which was reasonable and that area had then fairly nice beaches. www.coralbeach.ph/When we first were there we bought a 4wd to get around in. The traffic was a little intimidating and Mrs M wanted something a bit beefy rather than a small saloon. The weekend we got it we drove down to Tagatay to see the lake and I took it upon myself to see if I could drive, on and off road, all round the lake. We couldn't hug the shore all the way round by a long stretch but we made a good attempt at it, eventually returning home in the early hours of the next morning. In conclusion, it was many years ago I lived there, I don't recall anything with much of a wow factor in that area/city, the lake/volcano were worth a look at but I seem to remember large areas of the lake being covered in fish farms. Manila was a necessary evil, the best beaches were further away on the islands but for a short visit may be too hard to get to, Philippine food as a resident left quite a lot to be desired, e.g. most bread and anything else tasted far too sweet as though they added sugar all the time, the people were very friendly and enjoyed talking and having a good time/party, most were American influenced rather than Spanish influenced - but to offset any downsides, the weather, apart from in the monsoon season (approx end June - November), was almost perfect to live in. Does any of that help? |
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Post by Baz Faz on Aug 18, 2016 19:44:40 GMT 2
Before we flew to Manila I had cultivated on Thorn Tree a man who worked at the airport. We emailed him a photo of what we looked like. When we arrived he was waiting at the entrance to the airbridge. He escorted us through the diplomatic channel to the taxi he had organised to take us to our hotel. I recommend you do this even if only to enjoy the look of envy on the people queuing to go through passport control.
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Post by auntieannie on Aug 18, 2016 23:16:41 GMT 2
Do I remember Hedonist stopping at Manila for 24 hours or so? a couple years back when he was posting from his crazy Asian business travels with a zillion meetings in different places?
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Post by Tilly Star on Aug 22, 2016 15:54:09 GMT 2
Well thanks to the lack of enthusiasm for Manila and Tagaylay, we've decided to arrive the night before the wedding, stay for the wedding then fly to El Nido in Palawan for 4 days... It'll be a busy week but would hate to go that far and not any of the relatively close beauty... The cheap rum swung it.
It's great, I'm so busy at work I had an idea and my lovely friend I'm traveling with has got it all planned, this is such a lovely change for me :-)
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Post by OnlyMark on Aug 22, 2016 16:32:57 GMT 2
Good choice. I do remember on Palawan there were quite a few mossies. May have just been the time of year though. Very pretty island and worth a visit for sure.
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Post by Baz Faz on Aug 22, 2016 17:16:49 GMT 2
Mark mentions mozzies but there are also the sandflies (or no-see-ums as the Filipinos call them) and which I am allergic too. You can buy antibiotic cream there to deal with the bites. The rum is good particularly if you buy a bottle of kalamansay juice to mix with it.
Together with a Dutch couple we met on the island (and with whom we are still friends) we hired a boat and a crew of two for the day to take us to outer islands. I can absolutely recommend this. While we went snorkelling the crew caught fish which were BBQed for lunch on the beach. In case they hadn't caught any fish they had a backup of plentiful pork, rice and vegetables. The whole day cost peanuts.
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Post by OnlyMark on Aug 22, 2016 18:37:48 GMT 2
I was just talking to Mrs M about this and she mentioned the noseeums as well. I don't remember them, but I do remember I had some of the best fish I've ever had there.
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Post by Baz Faz on Aug 22, 2016 18:53:08 GMT 2
Not everyone suffers from noseeums. Mrs M and I are obviously delicate creatures.
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Post by Tilly Star on Aug 23, 2016 0:49:30 GMT 2
I can't bloody wait, you've got me very excited about this trip now! Noseeums, Nosheesums.
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Post by Baz Faz on Aug 23, 2016 10:07:12 GMT 2
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Post by Tilly Star on Sept 4, 2016 10:51:51 GMT 2
Thank you Baz. There are quite a few of us going from UK and looks like a group of us like the idea of going to Palawan for a few days afterwards so have a FB group to plan. I'll post this on their as I love the idea of camping there!
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Post by auntieannie on Sept 4, 2016 12:27:13 GMT 2
They're, their, there, cough.
(purely because you must be really distracted.)
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Post by Baz Faz on Sept 11, 2016 11:56:03 GMT 2
Tilly, there is an article on Palawan in the travel section of the Times of Saturday 10 Sep.
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Post by Hedonista on Sept 19, 2016 18:48:05 GMT 2
Well thanks to the lack of enthusiasm for Manila and Tagaylay, we've decided to arrive the night before the wedding, stay for the wedding then fly to El Nido in Palawan for 4 days... It'll be a busy week but would hate to go that far and not any of the relatively close beauty... The cheap rum swung it. It's great, I'm so busy at work I had an idea and my lovely friend I'm traveling with has got it all planned, this is such a lovely change for me :-) Yup, actually I went there quite a few times Tilly. In those crazy days that only ended last year when I was back and forward to Asia 5 or 6 times a year. All over now. But I did go there on holiday once with the kids and great time. We went to the central Visayas, flying from Manila into Cebu and then catching ferries to lots of different island, loved it. |
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